Road millage renewal passes

JOSH FAHLSING

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Tuesday, May 4, 2004

Huron County Road Commission Secretary/Manager Neal J. Hentschl said this morning that, with two precincts left to report, there were 1,676 votes approving the millage and 470 cast against it, for a total of 2,146 votes. The vote means the millage will not be up for renewal again until 2008.

The results are unofficial until the Huron County Board of Canvassers meets to certify the results. Huron County Clerk Peggy Koehler said the board will meet at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

An estimated $1.06 million for primary roads and $285,624 for major and local streets will be raised in the first year of this renewal.

The money generated from the millage is used to help fund maintenance and construction on the 344 miles of primary road in Huron County.

"This is the second time it's been renewed and there's always been great support for the millage," Hentschl said. "You never take anything for granted, but it's a humbling experience to see that type of support from the local people and that has to do with the money that is generated being spent directly on the roads. It's one of the few taxes where you can actually see where the money goes."

Hentschl said the road commission works very hard to have a system in place for regular and routine maintenance on the roads. He said an asphalt road can last 15 years if properly maintained.

"We have a program in place, and a lot of that depends on the traffic - commercial traffic and heavy traffic - on the roads, where we can probably tell you three or four years from now what roads will need to be done," he said. "We've proven the system works. The millage isn't the only amount of dollars that is spent on the roads but the millage gives us that edge. It's an excellent return (for people's money)."

Hentschl said this is the second time the millage has been renewed.

"The original millage, that was 10 years ago. We did a lot of roads that were really bad then," he said. "We make a great effort to get the biggest bang for our buck. The results are road systems that are the envy of people in the state."

Hentschl said the work on the county's roads never ends. He said the road commission can work on about 20 to 25 miles of the 344 miles of primary roads each year.

"It takes you 10 or 12 years to do them all," he said. "When we get to the end of this millage cycle a lot (of the roads done the first time) will need to be done again."

Hentschl said getting the millage renewed again was a group effort.

"A lot of people worked hard on this. The Committee for Better Roads, those folks worked extremely hard at getting the message out, and Farm Bureau has been a huge supporter of this," he said. "It's a team effort. The money we get goes into the roads as much as possible and people recognize that."